By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KINSHASA, DRC – The U.N. has suspended logistical and operational support for the Congolese army’s 213th Brigade which was confirmed to have killed at least 62 civilians during a peacekeeper-backed offensive against the rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

For months, human rights groups have exposed the fact that Congolese armed forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have brutally killed hundreds of civilians and committed widespread rape, while they received more than $6 million worth of U.N. military and logistical backing for its Kimiya operation.

The UN peacekeeping mission, MONUC, is a partner with the Congolese army in operation Kimia II, which began on March 2. The aim of the peacekeeping mission is to disarm by force the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan Hutu militia group, some of whose leaders participated in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. MONUC provides substantial operational and logistics support to the soldiers, including military firepower, transport, rations, and fuel.

Humanitarian agencies and rights groups have decried the civilian toll of the offensive, which has disarmed around 1,300 FDLR fighters at the cost of more than 7,000 women and girls raped and more than 900,000 people forced to flee their homes.

Human Rights Watch conducted 21 fact-finding missions in North and South Kivu from January to October 2009, and found that Congolese army soldiers had deliberately killed at least 505 civilians from the start of operation Kimia II in March through September. Most of the victims were women, children, and the elderly. Some were decapitated. Others were chopped to death by machete, beaten to death with clubs, or shot as they tried to flee.

“Some Congolese army soldiers are committing war crimes by viciously targeting the very people they should be protecting,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “MONUC’s continued willingness to provide support for such abusive military operations implicates them in violations of the laws of war.”

“We welcome the steps that the U.N. has taken to suspend operations to this one brigade. But I am afraid we are documenting these kinds of atrocities, not just in this one area but in many other areas as well,” said Van Woudenberg. “And we think the U.N. now needs to immediately suspend all of its support to this military operation until abusive commanders are removed and safeguards are in place in protect civilians.”

Head of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo, Alain Le Roy, said despite confirmation of soldiers in the Congolese army’s 213th Brigade participated in the massacre of at least 62 people between May and September, the U.N. has no intention of withdrawing broader support for the offensive.

“(The U.N.) will continue its engagement on the side of the Congolese army in the operation, which is very important in order to neutralize the FDLR.” Said Le Roy. “We have a case [where] clearly some units have behaved badly and some civilians have been killed in quite an important number. But we are not suspending our support to the Kimiya operation, not at all,”

The U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator in Congo and the deputy head of MONUC, Ross Mountain, said that withdrawing the mission’s support for the operations would limit its ability to protect civilians. While admitting that there had been abuses by almost 50,000 government soldiers involved in the operations, Mountain denied claims made by HRW that MONUC had been aware as early as May of the widespread crimes carried out by the army.

The operation, in Congo’s volatile eastern border provinces of North and South Kivu, was part of an agreement aimed at improving relations between Congo and Rwanda, enemies during a 1998-2003 war. The presence in eastern Congo of the FDLR is considered to be a root cause of over a decade of conflict and a humanitarian crisis that has killed an estimated 5.4 million people. Despite suspending some Congolese unites, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously last month to continue supporting the Congolese army.

For more information, please see:

Reuters – U.N. Defends Congo Role Despite Army Killings – 3 Nov 2009

VOA news – Rights Group Demands U.N. Aid Cut-Off to Congolese Army – 03 November 2009

The Huffington Post – Human Rights Watch Damns MONUC in Congo: Leaked UN Internal Memo Supports the Accusations – 2 November 2009

Amnesty International – Surge in Army Atrocities – U.N. Peacekeeping Force Knowingly Supports Abusive Military Operations – 2 November 2009

By Jonathan Ambaye
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

DAKAR, Senegal-Today the government of Equatorial Guinea announced it had pardoned Simon Mann and four other South Africans who had been imprisoned for a failed attempt to overthrow the country’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. In March 2004, a plane from South Africa was impounded by Zimbabwean police. Simon Mann, along with over seventy other mercenaries, was aboard the plane with the intent to pick up weapons and proceed to Equatorial Guinea in order to carry out a coup.

Upon the plane landing the police suspected the mercenaries intentions and instead arrested everyone on board the plane. Mann served four years in a Zimbabwean jail before his extradition to Equatorial Guinea where he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 34 years in prison for being the author of a plot to carry out a coup.  Simon strongly contended that he was only an accomplice and not the leader of the plot.

On Tuesday, an advisor to Equatorial Guinea President Obiang, Miguel Mifuno said Mann was released on humanitarian grounds. He also said, “Simon Mann conducted himself in an exemplary fashion during his trial and his incarceration in Equatorial Guinea. He has had some health problems. And was operated on. He is now in good health but the President thinks he should now be allowed to live in peace with his family.”

Simon Mann is an alumnus of Britain’s prominent educational institution, Eton College, and comes from a wealthy family of brewers. His involvement in the conspiracy included other Britons including Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Sir Mark Thatcher had been fined and given a suspended sentence in South Africa in 2005 for unknowingly helping to finance the plot.

Upon Mann’s release, he said he was “delighted” that he would be reunited with his family and that was thrilled at the news.

For more information please see:

All Africa – Government Frees Mercenaries – 3 November 2009
BBC – Pardoned Briton Due For UK Return – 3 November 2009
NY Times – Equatorial Guinea Frees British Mercenary – 3 November 2009
VOA – British Coup Leader Pardoned In West Africa – 3 November 2009